Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Germs That Make Us Contagious │ Msg 1112 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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Germs That Make Us Contagious │ Msg 1112 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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  Speaker 1: Do you have the courage to be a contagious Christian?
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps you never realized that being contagious requires courage, but
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  Speaker 1: think about that for a moment. Releasing Christ's infectious presence
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: in your daily life takes the courage to do several things,
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  Speaker 1: like the smile at life rather than dreaded like. It
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  Speaker 1: takes courage to listen to God's you can do it
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  Speaker 1: rather than paying attention to others. Now you better watch out,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: better hold back there. And it also takes courage to
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  Speaker 1: be enthusiastic rather than pessimistic about what the day may
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  Speaker 1: hold for you. It doesn't necessarily take a dynamic personality
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  Speaker 1: to be contagious. For instance, we wouldn't say that the
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  Speaker 1: late Mother Teresa had a boisterous temperament, yet her vision
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  Speaker 1: to give love to the unlovable, the sick, and the
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  Speaker 1: dying influenced untold millions of others, even in her own
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  Speaker 1: quiet way. Contagious Christians you understand, inspire and challenge, sometimes
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  Speaker 1: even rebuke by their example of courage. Listen, for example,
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  Speaker 1: to some descriptions of courage, as found in JB. Phillip's
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  Speaker 1: paraphrase of First Thessalonians five thirteen to twenty three, where
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  Speaker 1: he writes, live together in peace, Encourage the timid, reprimand
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  Speaker 1: the unruly. Help those who are weak. Be very patient
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  Speaker 1: with everyone. Be sure that no one repays a bad
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  Speaker 1: turn by a bad turn. Good should be your objective.
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  Speaker 1: Always be happy in your faith at all times. Never
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  Speaker 1: stop praying, Be thankful whatever you're sircumstances may be. If
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  Speaker 1: you follow this advice, you will be working out the
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  Speaker 1: will of God expressed to you in Christ Jesus. Never
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  Speaker 1: dampen the fire of the spirit, and never despise what
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  Speaker 1: is spoken to you in the name of the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: By all means, use your judgment and hold on to
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  Speaker 1: whatever is really good, and of course steer clear of
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  Speaker 1: evil in any form. May the God of Peace make
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  Speaker 1: you holy through and through. Seems to me that most
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  Speaker 1: people who want to get the most out of life
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  Speaker 1: desire to be contagious people. That implies that you desire
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  Speaker 1: to be different. So much of life is just plain, boring,
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  Speaker 1: just drab. Have you noticed it just seems to get long.
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  Speaker 1: As my mother used to say, life just seems to
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  Speaker 1: get long. William McNamara once wrote in a book entitled
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  Speaker 1: The Human Adventure, These honest words. My grievance with contemporary
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  Speaker 1: society is with its decreptitude. Is with its decrepitude. There
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  Speaker 1: are few towering pleasures to allure me, almost no beauty
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  Speaker 1: to bewitch me. Nothing erotic to arouse me, No intellectual
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  Speaker 1: circles or positions to challenge or provoke me, No burgeoning
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  Speaker 1: philosophies or theology, and no new art to catch my
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  Speaker 1: attention or engage my mind. Arousing political, social, or religious
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  Speaker 1: movements to stimulate or excite me. There are no free
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  Speaker 1: men to lead me, no saints to inspire me, no
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  Speaker 1: sinners sinful enough to either impress me or share my plight.
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  Speaker 1: No one human enough to validate the going lifestyle. It
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  Speaker 1: is hard to linger in that dull world without being dulled.
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  Speaker 1: I stake the future on the few humble and hearty
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  Speaker 1: lovers who seek God passionately in the marvelous, messy world
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  Speaker 1: of redeemed and related realities that lie in front of
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  Speaker 1: our noses. I say amen to. That seems to me
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  Speaker 1: that what we really need in this world is a
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  Speaker 1: body of people whose lives demand and explanation. That's not
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  Speaker 1: original with me. I heard that from Lloyd Ogilvie, our
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  Speaker 1: lives if they are indeed contagious, will be lives that
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  Speaker 1: demand and explanation. People will want to know how come
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  Speaker 1: you're so much like that? Now, when I talk about
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  Speaker 1: being contagious, I mean it in the right sense. We're
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  Speaker 1: all contagious. Problem is we're infecting people with their wrong germs,
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  Speaker 1: not the unhealthy kind of contagion. Webster says, to be
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  Speaker 1: contagious is to communicate by contact, to be catching. When
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  Speaker 1: people are contagious, there's an influence that spreads from their
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  Speaker 1: lives that simply cannot be turned off. We find ourselves
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  Speaker 1: inspired by them, and challenged by them, and more often
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  Speaker 1: than not rebuked by them, without their attempting to rebuke
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  Speaker 1: us verbally. They convince us of the good way to live.
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  Speaker 1: They inspire us to reach a greater destiny. It takes courage.
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  Speaker 1: Takes courage to live like that. Jeremiah was challenged. If
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  Speaker 1: you have run with the footman, meaning the infantry, and
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  Speaker 1: they have wearied you, then how will you contend with horses?
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  Speaker 1: Which is another way of saying, if the infantry wears
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  Speaker 1: you out, what are you going to do when the
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  Speaker 1: cavalry comes? And if in the land of peace wherein
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  Speaker 1: you trusted, you got tired. What will you do in
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  Speaker 1: the jungle.
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  Speaker 2: Of the Jordan.
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  Speaker 1: When things were going well, you found yourself swamped by
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  Speaker 1: your own self imposed neuroses. What are you gonna do
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  Speaker 1: when it's jungle fighting, Jeremiah, be contagious, be different in
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  Speaker 1: this dull world. Many of our Christian heroes had such courage.
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  Speaker 1: Saint Francis of ASISI, you should study his life sometime now.
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  Speaker 1: When you see pictures of Francis, you think of an old,
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  Speaker 1: stoop shouldered man that talked to birds and played around
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  Speaker 1: in the garden and lived a life about as exciting
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  Speaker 1: as watching paint dry. But that's not Saint Francis of ASSISI.
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  Speaker 1: That's not him. You know what they called him in
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  Speaker 1: his day, Joculator Domini, the hilarious saint. How about Mother Teresa.
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  Speaker 1: I cannot imagine Mother Teresa waking up to an alarm
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  Speaker 1: in Calcutta four thirty five o'clock in the morning, thinking, oh,
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  Speaker 1: rat's another hard day in the ghetto. I don't believe
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  Speaker 1: she starts her day like that. I don't believe she
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  Speaker 1: spends her life complaining about the lumpy mattress or the
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  Speaker 1: hot days or the long nights. Now, there's something contagious
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  Speaker 1: about people like this. To be around folks like that
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  Speaker 1: is to be infected with germs of encouragement. And you
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  Speaker 1: want to do better, You want to accomplish more, you
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  Speaker 1: want to reach new heights. There is within us a
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  Speaker 1: choice we can make to spread poison or to spread encouragement.
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  Speaker 1: And I think the New Testament is full of sufficient
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  Speaker 1: challenge to tempt to send us in the right direction. Turn,
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  Speaker 1: if you will, to first Thessalonians five. There's a whole
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  Speaker 1: list of things. Maybe we need them. Now that Christmas
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  Speaker 1: shopping is getting long, I've got to get started in mind.
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  Speaker 1: I can't put it off any longer. Dreaded, I keep
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  Speaker 1: waiting for the ship to come in and Christmas presents.
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  Speaker 1: I think one day I'll wake up and they'll all
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  Speaker 1: be there, wrapped, tagged and paid for by someone else.
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  Speaker 1: I think, how wonderful that would be. Let me tell
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  Speaker 1: you a funny thing that happened, and it's not in
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  Speaker 1: my notes, so don't tell anybody I told you. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: Sometime you get gifts in the strangest ways. My friend
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  Speaker 1: Ray Stedman was ministering at a place back east as
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  Speaker 1: I recall, and he was sitting at breakfast alone one
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  Speaker 1: morning and there was a pewter salt and pepper set
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  Speaker 1: and a little creamer in front of him, just beautiful.
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  Speaker 1: And he thought, in a weak moment, that would fit
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  Speaker 1: neatly in my suitcase. I could take that home and
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  Speaker 1: this place would never miss it. And then the more
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  Speaker 1: he thought about it and more scandily realized he would
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  Speaker 1: create as a minister stealing these things. He thought, I
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  Speaker 1: can't do that. And so the next Sunday, while he
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  Speaker 1: was preaching, he was on the subject of stealing, and
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  Speaker 1: he admitted this to everyone. He says, I want you
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  Speaker 1: to know that even I can be tempted to do that.
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  Speaker 1: And the following Sunday morning at his study there was
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  Speaker 1: a little package and he unwrapped it and it was
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  Speaker 1: this pewter salt and pepper shaker and creamer. Someone in
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  Speaker 1: the congregation heard his story and called back there and thought,
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  Speaker 1: if he want it that much, I'll send it to him,
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  Speaker 1: you know. And so when he shared it the next Sunday,
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  Speaker 1: he said, I also noticed this lovely color television set
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  Speaker 1: it And he said, you know what, I did not
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  Speaker 1: get a color television. So sometime I think of all
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  Speaker 1: the Christmas getting No. I won't go into that. Back
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  Speaker 1: to the stuff at hand here, I want you to
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  Speaker 1: notice that this list we're looking at kind of evolves
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  Speaker 1: out of a statement that Paul makes in verse eleven,
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  Speaker 1: Encourage one another, build up one another. I think if
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  Speaker 1: I were to paraphrase it, I would say, be contagious
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  Speaker 1: with encouragement, be an edifier, just as a regular habit
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  Speaker 1: of your life, so that when anyone leaves your presence,
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  Speaker 1: even though they were there for a reproof, they felt
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  Speaker 1: built up. That's quite a challenge. Be contagious in putting
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  Speaker 1: courage into someone else. That's why I ask, are you
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  Speaker 1: courageous enough to be contagious? See the word encourage. It
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  Speaker 1: means that putting courage into someone else. Enthusiasm is from enfaos.
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  Speaker 1: Theos means God putting God into another life. Encourage putting
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  Speaker 1: courage into another life. And lest he leave us with
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  Speaker 1: just the mocking sound of a command, he adds a
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  Speaker 1: list of things we can do as we wrap ourselves
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  Speaker 1: up like a gift and give ourselves to people. Some
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  Speaker 1: of the things are kindly requested. Verse twelve. I request
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  Speaker 1: of you that you appreciate those who are your spiritual leaders.
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  Speaker 1: Show respect for your spiritual leaders. And verse thirteen concludes
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  Speaker 1: with another kindly requested, give your give up to others
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  Speaker 1: the gift of peace. See the way it reads, live
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  Speaker 1: in peace with one another, be peaceful. And then he
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  Speaker 1: changes to urgency in verse fourteen. Now we urge you.
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  Speaker 1: Now he gets a little closer to home. There are
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  Speaker 1: some things that are urgently needed. If you're going to
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  Speaker 1: be contagious, if you're going to have an impact in
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  Speaker 1: a dull world. There are some things that must mark
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  Speaker 1: your life, and they're urgent things. Notice them. Admonish the unruly,
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  Speaker 1: Put courage into the discouraged. Stay with the weak. The
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  Speaker 1: word help suggest the idea of staying with them in
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  Speaker 1: the long haul. We look at that closely last time.
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  Speaker 1: Be increasingly more patient, and verse fifteen. Refuse to retaliate.
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  Speaker 1: I don't like the license plate sign that reads I
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  Speaker 1: don't get mad, I get even. I get bothered by
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  Speaker 1: that because that guy's driving a car, and I never
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  Speaker 1: know when somebody wants to get even is in front
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  Speaker 1: of his bumper. Don't get even, don't even try to
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  Speaker 1: get even. Let them win if they want to call
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  Speaker 1: that winning. You will never be contagious if you spend
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  Speaker 1: your life getting even. Now he goes further. We had
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  Speaker 1: to stop because we run out of time and we
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  Speaker 1: want to continue. When you get to verse sixteen down
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  Speaker 1: through twenty, you come upon things that are continually appropriate.
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  Speaker 1: See the way it reads. Always rejoice unceasingly, pray in everything,
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  Speaker 1: give thanks, stop extinguishing the spirit, and stop turning off
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  Speaker 1: messages from God spoken through the throat of a prophet.
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  Speaker 1: And then there are finally, well, there's one thing that's
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  Speaker 1: occasionally uncertain, and so as we're going to see, we
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  Speaker 1: need to examine it carefully. If it's good, stay with it.
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  Speaker 1: If it's bad, get rid of it. We'll look at
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  Speaker 1: that in a minute. Now, some things that are continually appropriate.
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  Speaker 1: If you want to be contagious, work on these things.
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  Speaker 1: Always rejoice. I cannot name one thing that is more
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  Speaker 1: contagious than genuine joy. Can't name a thing. I know
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  Speaker 1: some people who say, look, I just don't show it.
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  Speaker 1: I'm joyful, I just don't show it. I never met
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  Speaker 1: anybody of whom that was true. If you are truly joyful,
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  Speaker 1: you cannot keep from showing it. I'm not saying you
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  Speaker 1: have to be a cheerleader. I'm not saying you have
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  Speaker 1: to have a lot of charisma or dynamic. You don't
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  Speaker 1: have to be like that in personality. I know some
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  Speaker 1: very quiet kind of people who are terribly contagious to
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  Speaker 1: be around, full of joy. They're not applauding a lot.
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  Speaker 1: They don't do black backflips down the road, they don't
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  Speaker 1: sing to the top of their voice. They're quiet people,
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  Speaker 1: but they're contagiously happy. There is in this a well
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  Speaker 1: developed sense of humor, an optimistic outlook on life, a
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  Speaker 1: focusing on the healing rather than on the difficulty of
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  Speaker 1: the problem. A person who is rejoicing always is one
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  Speaker 1: who is light hearted in spirit, one who on occasion
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  Speaker 1: really enjoys a good laugh. Because some of you still
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  Speaker 1: don't look convinced, I've done little research in this, and
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  Speaker 1: I want to share with you that there is scientific
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  Speaker 1: proof it will do you good. I don't know if
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  Speaker 1: you've read The Anatomy of an Illness as Person by
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  Speaker 1: the Patient by Norman Cousins, you may have heard him
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  Speaker 1: interviewed on one of the talk shows in the Los
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  Speaker 1: Angeles area. He wrote a bestseller by that name. I
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  Speaker 1: recommend the book to You was written by this former
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  Speaker 1: Saturday Review editor. He was hospitalized in nineteen sixty four
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  Speaker 1: with an extremely rare crippling disease. When conventional medicine failed
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  Speaker 1: to improve his condition, he was diagnosed as incurable. Cousins
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  Speaker 1: checked out of the hospital. Being aware of the harmful
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  Speaker 1: effects that negative emotions can have on the human body,
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  Speaker 1: demand reason that the reverse must also be true, So
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  Speaker 1: he decided to dwell on becoming well again. He barred
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  Speaker 1: a movie projector. Now, if you're a physician, just keep listening.
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  Speaker 1: Don't turn this off, just keep listening. He barred a
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  Speaker 1: movie projector and prescribed his own treatment plan, consisting of
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  Speaker 1: Marx Brothers motion pictures, an old candid camera reruns on film.
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  Speaker 1: He studied all aspects of his disease, and with the
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  Speaker 1: help of his physician, he learned what would have to
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  Speaker 1: take place in his body to make it right again.
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  Speaker 1: He focused on that. In his book, he recounts that
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  Speaker 1: he made the joyous discovery that ten minutes ten minutes
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  Speaker 1: of genuine belly laughter would give me at least two
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  Speaker 1: hours of painfree sleep. What had seemed to be a
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  Speaker 1: progressively debilitating fatal cellular disease was reversed, and in time
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  Speaker 1: Cousins almost completely recovered. After his personal account of the
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  Speaker 1: victory appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, he
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  Speaker 1: received more than three thousand letters from appreciative physicians throughout
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  Speaker 1: the world. Thirty four medical schools have included his article
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  Speaker 1: in their instructional materials, and in nineteen seventy eight, Norman
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  Speaker 1: Cousins joined the faculty of the UCLA Medical School. Isn't
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  Speaker 1: that amazing? Another man writing about it, says, it seems
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  Speaker 1: the brain causes the cells to produce proteins called endo enzymes,
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  Speaker 1: which are natural morphine like pain killers, Laughter triggers the
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  Speaker 1: production of these endo enzymes. Doctors now agree that cousins
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  Speaker 1: self prescribed therapy of joy has a scientific basis. Laughter
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  Speaker 1: reduces pain and actually helps to cure the patient. With
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  Speaker 1: laughter as his painkiller, Cousins no longer had to use
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  Speaker 1: sleeping pills and other drugs that alter the endocrine system
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  Speaker 1: and interfere with the body's own internal healing mechanism. I
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  Speaker 1: think that's great. I'm involved in a little radio program
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  Speaker 1: and on occasion I'll have people write me and say
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  Speaker 1: you can stop preaching, which kind of catches me up short,
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  Speaker 1: and then they will add, but don't stop laughing. Yours
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  Speaker 1: is the only laughter that ever comes into our home.
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  Speaker 1: Is there laughter in your home? When did it stop?
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  Speaker 1: Chances are very good that since it stopped you felt worse.
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  Speaker 1: You say, well, if you only knew my circumstance. Wait
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  Speaker 1: a minute, since when did circumstances give us reason to
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  Speaker 1: laugh or not? If I went on the basis of circumstances, friends,
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  Speaker 1: you think i'd do what I do for a living.
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  Speaker 1: You and I realized that the challenge of life is
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  Speaker 1: living above circumstances, seeing beyond the petty differences that lie
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  Speaker 1: between us and other individuals, overlooking false, going further than
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  Speaker 1: the gloomy, grim response of others. I love this statement.
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  Speaker 1: I got it from a French Jesuit priest theologian whose
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  Speaker 1: name I can't even pronounce. Joy is the surest sign
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  Speaker 1: of the presence of God. Isn't that good? I think
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  Speaker 1: that's true? Now, how do I do that? Unceasingly? Pray? Hey,
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  Speaker 1: these are linked together like links in a chain. If
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  Speaker 1: you try to do that without this next one, you're
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  Speaker 1: gonna run dry. Your laughter is gonna turn into just
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  Speaker 1: a silly little smile. You're gonna become just a jokester.
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  Speaker 1: No one wants to be around just a jokester. That's
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  Speaker 1: not funny. We pay entertainers to do that for us,
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  Speaker 1: and most of them are grim people when they're not
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  Speaker 1: in front of the camera. The only way to have
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  Speaker 1: a heart that's full of joy is to have a
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  Speaker 1: heart that's free of the burdens. And to have a
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  Speaker 1: heart that's free of the burdens means you've got to
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  Speaker 1: release them, and you release the burden how prayer? See
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  Speaker 1: the way he puts it, unceasingly pray. Many years ago
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  Speaker 1: I stumbled across this paraphrase. Pray with the frequency of
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  Speaker 1: a hacking cough ever had one of those little ticklish
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  Speaker 1: feelings in your throat and just required that about every
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: oh two or three minutes. Sometime less than that, you
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  Speaker 1: had to cough. You just had to. That's the idea.
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  Speaker 1: It's not a NonStop, twenty four hour a day burden
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  Speaker 1: of prayer. It's not that it's just a regular releasing
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  Speaker 1: of the load. You're with someone, they're honery, they're hard
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  Speaker 1: to deal with. Release the load to God. You get
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  Speaker 1: a letter that attacks you, release, Let him read it.
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  Speaker 1: You have a job that requires a few heavy decisions
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  Speaker 1: and a lot of high powered responsibility kind of things.
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  Speaker 1: Let him share in it. Why do you think you
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  Speaker 1: have a savior? Since Wendy, could you handle it? You
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  Speaker 1: will become extraordinary. If you do that, you will become
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  Speaker 1: the gossip of the office. Your life will demand an explanation.
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  Speaker 1: Contagious is the word pray without ceasing. What's the genius
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  Speaker 1: of this discipline? Number one, it is tremendously therapeutic, and
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  Speaker 1: number two, it is a direct pipeline to wisdom. That's
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  Speaker 1: why prayer works. It's a therapy that sends the burden
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  Speaker 1: from my shoulders to God's. And second, it sends back
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  Speaker 1: to me perspective, which is called in scripture wisdom works.
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  Speaker 1: I've never seen it fail. Never When I say to
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  Speaker 1: my father, help me, hear he does. And when he
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  Speaker 1: helps me, he also sends along in the package insight.
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  Speaker 1: I need perspective, that I need, wisdom that I need
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  Speaker 1: I'm freed from the anchor that drags me down. And
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  Speaker 1: as a result, guess what verse eighteen happens in everything?
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  Speaker 1: Give thanks? Did you notice this? It's an always matter
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  Speaker 1: of rejoicing. It is an unceasing matter of prayer. It
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  Speaker 1: is an in everything matter of giving things, not for everything.
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  Speaker 1: This helped me a long time ago. I used to
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  Speaker 1: think that I was responsible before God to give thanks
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  Speaker 1: for everything. No, why would I ever give thanks for
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: something I really needed to confess to him is wrong.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: I'm not thankful for sin in my life. I'm not
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: thankful for calamity that drops me on my face. I'm
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: not thankful for the cursing of someone else against me.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: I'm not thankful for ugly things done against my children.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: But in them I am thankful. You see, the little
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: word inn gives me the perspective of the whole pattern
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: which God is weaving together in his sovereign way. In
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: his pattern there are beautiful threads of gold and silver,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: and yellow and red and orange, and bright greens and
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: bright blues. But in his pattern there are also somber
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: grays and blacks and deep hues of brown. Those are
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: needed in the pattern. And so in this whole pattern
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: that God is weaving together, I'm giving him thanks. I'm
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: giving him thanks for the low tide. In the midst
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: of it, I am gaining a depth concerning his plan
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: that I would not have gotten but for the thing itself.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: Not really. There are sometimes when things occur in my
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: life that I simply am baffled. Do you have that
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: same experience? I just am baffled, But then three months later,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: looking back, I'm not at all baffled. I'm amazed at
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: my insight three months later as I look back. But
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: it took the loss of three months earlier for me
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: to gain what I got three months later. Sometimes the
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: gratitude has to happens to me following the time of sin.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: Ruth Harms Caulkin writes, in Lord, it keeps happening and
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: happening these words. Oh God, you have driven me into
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: a corner where I cannot escape. I come to you penitently,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: for today I have sinned grievously. I have betrayed my
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: highest ideals. I have been false to my inner convictions.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: I know I have broken your heart. Thank you get
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: the gratitude. Thank you for dealing with me in the
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: privacy of your personal presence, For my sin has been
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: against you alone. Cleanse me, Lord, change me. Sin is
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: so hideous, so outrageous. Renew me until I am spiritually contagious.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: In that act, I become increasingly more contagious. Contagious people
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: aren't perfect people. They're forgiven people. They're people who claim
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: the forgiveness God grants, and they live in the life
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: of it. Now you'll notice the first three are positive rejoice, always,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: pray without ceasing, and everything give thanks. This is God's will.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Now the negatives, and interestingly, the adverbs aren't emphasized now,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: but the subjects Earlier it was always rejoice, unceasingly, pray
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: in everything, give thanks. Now it's the spirit. Do not
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: extinguish prophetic utterances. Do not despise emphasis sake. Now it
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: turns to the spirit, and I think it has reference
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: to the Holy Spirit who lives within the believer. Don't
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: extinguish him. Stop putting out the spirit's fire. Philip's paraphrase
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: refers to damping the spirit of God. Don't damp his presence. Now,
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: the child of God cannot lose the Spirit of God.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: I'm convinced of that. So it's not a question of
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: living my life separate from the Spirit of God, but
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: living my life with May I say it this way,
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: with him on hold allowing my life to become so
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: self serving, which is simply sinful and stubborn that he,
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: having worked and worked to bring me back in line,
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: steps away, folds his arms and waits for me. Ever
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: had that experience, I'm going to show it to you
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: in Joseiah's words. Turn back if you will, from Thessalonians
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: to Joseiah chapter five. If you have trouble finding hoseiahs
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: just before Joel, I'm sure you know where Joel is.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: Joseiah five. He calls a group of people Ephrium, Ephrium,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: and he's worked with Ephrium, and worked with Ephrium, and
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: worked with Ephrium. And they have bowed their neck like
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: a stubborn mule. And we're gonna notice the progress, which
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: might be called the regress. Here, got it? Joseah five,
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: verse two. And the revolters have gone deep in depravity.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: But I will chastise all of them, God says, I'll
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: go to work on them. I know Ephrium and Israel
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: is not hidden from me. For now, Ephrium, you have
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: played the harlot. Israel has defiled itself. I dropped down
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: to verse eleven. Ephrium is oppressed, crushed in judgment because
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: he was determined to follow man's command. Notice that that's
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: usually when we get off track. When we listen more
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: to man than to God. We're all culpable. Therefore, God says,
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: I am like a moth to e freedom. I just
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: found this this week, and it's one of those discoveries
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: you make and you think, when did that go into
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: the Bible. I have never seen that. It's been there
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: for centuries. We haven't seen it. You ever have been
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: camping and had a moth bother you around the lantern
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: you just can't get rid of, And then another one comes.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: Moths talk to each other. Come on over here, Ralph,
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: this is a good light. And then Johnny comes in
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: and Shirley joins him, and then there's a whole family
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: of all. I would be like a moth to be
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: freem nothing big, just tormenting, staying at him, working with him.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: Verse thirteen. Ephraim saw his sickness, and when he did,
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: he ran down to Assyria, and he says at the
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: end of thirteen he's unable to heal you and to
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: cure you of your wound. So God says, I'm going
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: to change from a moth verse fourteen, I will be
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: like a lion. Looket this. There's a little difference between
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: a moth and a lion, wouldn't you say, like a
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: young lion to the house of Judah. I even I
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: will tear to pieces and go away and carry away,
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: and there'll be none to deliver, scraping and clawing and
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: snarling and haunting and haunting. I'll be like a lion
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: with him. But you know there are some that still
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: get away from a lion. Look at the last verse.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: And so I'll go away, Why because he's been extinguished.
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: I'll return to my place. How long until they acknowledge
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: their guilt and seek my face in their affliction, they
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: will earnestly seek me. Wow, you know what that affliction is.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: It's divine silence. It's lack of God's assistance. It's the
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: horror of loneliness. It's knowing that life need not be
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: like that. But it is like that because I choose
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: to make it like that. The moths are gone and
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: the lions are gone, and there's nothing in my day
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: but the cold, barren, loneliness, no contact with God. Verse
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: seventeen of chapter four. Ephrium is to idols, let him alone.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you. We have a lot of fun together,
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: but there are times we get really downright serious. And
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: this is one of those times you don't want to
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: play with the Spirit of God. You really don't want
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: to do that. He's not a fun and games guy. Okay,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: that's blasphemy. There's something about the boiling fire work of
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: the Spirit of God that heats up a life and
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: makes it contagious and licks away the wrong as those
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: flames continue to rage in the life and keeps that
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: heart softened to God and concerned about the lost, and
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: in touch with the hurting and tender and sensitive to
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: spiritual things and insightful to spiritual truth. That's all work,
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: the work of the spirit. That you can push him away,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: and push him away and walk in your carnality till
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: he'll back off, and he'll say, Okay, you go on
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: your own, and you will hate it. Don't extinguish the
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: spirit of God. And while on the subject, he adds,
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: do not despise prophetic utterances. First, Thessalonians five verse twenty
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: literally stop treating prophecies with contempt. This has a background
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: that we need to explain. The Thessalonian Church had been ripped
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: off with false prophets. By the way, every time there
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: is a true prophet, you can count on this nearby,
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: there'll be a false prophet. One man writes. Wherever God
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: plants wheat, Satan sows tears. Wherever God establishes a church,
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: the devil erects a chapel, and so too. When ever
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit enables certain men to perform miracles of healing,
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: the evil one distributes his lying wonders. And wherever the
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: paraclet brings a true prophet on the scene, the deceiver
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: presents his false prophets. That happened in Thesalonaika there came
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: false prophets who says, who said, don't worry about your job.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: Christ is coming. It's imminent, I mean any day now,
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: and you don't even need to work. And so they
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: quit their jobs, and they stood around idly leaning on
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: others for their life sustenance, and they became busybodies. And
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: Paul wrote them and said, you've gone to the extreme. Well,
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: others saw that happen, and they decided on the other extreme.
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: Will listen to nobody. No one is a prophet. If
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: that's the result of prophecy, we don't want to have
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: anything to do with any of the prophets. This rebuke
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: is to them. You see in those prophets were the
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: secret of hearing God's voice. They didn't have a Bible
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: complete in their language. They had to rely on men
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: who could speak ex Cathedra, the very oracle of God,
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: who spoke without error the truth of God's revelation. And
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: so I think what he's saying is, don't become suspicious,
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: be sensitive to God's voice. Because there are false prophets
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: does not give you reason to believe that all prophets
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: are false. By the way, not all prophecies come in
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: the form of divine revelation. I got a definition. I
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: think it's from the Lord. On this whole thing, I
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: would say that prophecy is the declaration of God's mind,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: spoken forthrightly in the power of the space at just
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: the right time. Sometime it's a practical prophecy. Prophets have
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: a way of speaking forthrightly and penetrating through the facade,
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: don't they. I had a man called me this week
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: who's a very dear friend. We were on the subject
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: of the failing marriages of some individuals in ministry, and
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: he said to me, I can't hang up the phone, Chuck,
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: without asking you, how's your marriage, how's your home? And
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: I count on you to keep the fires hot. I said,
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: I'm glad to say things are great. They've been tough
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: and they will be tough again, but right now I
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: need that exhortation. And then he said to me, I
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: want you to know that I believe you, but I
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: just there's something within me that that couldn't rest till
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: I heard it from your lips, because I want you
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: to know I'm counting on you to honor God in
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: your private life just as much as in your public life.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: I call that a prophecy, and I needed to hear it,
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: and I was not to despise it. You see, it's
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: in that context that the next section is written. Examine
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: everything carefully, now, don't lose the train of thought. This
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: is a whole paragraph of links in the chain that
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: fit together in a life that becomes contagious. Examine everything carefully. See,
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: sometime things will be uncertain. You'll not know if it's
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: of the Lord or of the devil. You'll not know
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: if it's of the flesh or of the spirit. So
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: when it comes to you, you have to make an
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: examination of it. Examine everything carefully. I think the command
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: is be discerning which puts to bed the idea that
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: living spiritually is living with gullibility. Keep your head on straight.
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: My dad used to say, even though the Lord has
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: entered your heart, he hasn't cut off your head. And
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: I see some Christians who live as though they have
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: no head. Wake up, wake up, look closely. Don't believe
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: every person who says I speak to you from God.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: Then what are the criteria? How do I know the
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: things I'm to accept? As he says in verse twenty one,
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: hold fast of that which is good and twenty two,
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: abstain from that which is evil, every form of it. Well,
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: I think whatever comes from God is consistent with the
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: truth of Scripture. That's one thing. Second, it is obedient
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: to the lordship of Christ. That's the second. And third,
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: it is in agreement with your inner spirit. I know
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: that's subjective, but you'll know, you'll connect. If you're that
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: yielded to the spirit of God, you'll sense that's exactly
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: what I need to hear right now. It doesn't contradict Scripture,
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: It doesn't put down the lordship of Christ. If anything,
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: it upholds it. It lifts it higher than I thought.
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: And third, it connects with my inner spirit. I call
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: it making spiritual sense. I know it comes from God.
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: The best counsel I've received has come through those criteria
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: to the good cling from the evil. Abstain. Yeah, I
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: ask you as we started, you have the courage to
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: be contagious. I close with three statements, something to remember,
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: something to resist, and something to release. Remember the goal
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: you want to be contagious. The goal is to build
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: up to encourage others Fetusalonians five eleven. That's the goal
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: to encourage. Remember that you want to be contagious. Then
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: you need to resist cheap imitations. The cheap imitation of
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: joy is a silly laugh all the time, a nervous laughter,
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: the need to joke about everything, to be serious about now.
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: And that isn't joy. That's insecurity. That's superficiality. You're revealing
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: that you're nervous with who you are and you're not
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: sure who God is. That isn't That's a cheap imitation,
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: A cheap imitation of prayer. You can go right down through.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: It is finding the need to talk about how much
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: you pray rather than simply praying, or to make up
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: for a long lapse by having an hour in prayer.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: Once a month. That's a cheap imitation. Watch out for that.
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: Resist that third release. The fear of what others may
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: say or think contagious people don't care if you're convinced
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: it honors and pleases God. You don't care what others
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: may think or say. I kind of like the counsel
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: from Davy Crockett to quote a great saint from the past.
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: Be sure you're right, then go ahead. That's great counsel.
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: From his book Run with the Horses, Eugene Peterson writes,
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: life is difficult, Jeremiah, are you going to quit it
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: the first wave of opposition? Are you going to retreat
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: when you find that there is more to life than
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: finding three meals a day and a dry place to
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: sleep at night? Are you going to run home the
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: minute you find that the mass of men and women
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: are more interested in keeping their feet warm than in
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: living at risk to the glory of God? Are you
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: going to live cautiously or courageously? I called you to
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: live at your best, to pursue righteousness, to sustain a
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: drive toward excellence. It is easier, I know, to be neurotic.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: It is easier to be parasitic. It is easier to
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: relax in the embracing arms of the average, Easier but
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: not better, Easier but not more significant. What is it
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: you really want, Jeremiah? Do you want to shuffle along
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: with the crowd or run with the horses? Then he concludes,
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: the euphoric impetus of youthful enthusiasm no longer carried Jeremiah.
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: He weighed the options, he counted the cost, He tossed
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: and turned in hesitation. The response, when it came, was
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: not verbal, but biographical. His life became his answer. I'll
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: run with the horses, maybe bowed together. Please, just for
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: a moment, Just for a moment, you're running with the horses.
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: You contagious? Are dull? You settle for mediocrity? Or have
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: you decided to be different, not to play the game,
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: not to traffic an unlived truth? To be distinctly Christian,
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: even if it ruffles some feathers. Go back to this list.
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and everything give thanks, don't
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: extinguish the spirit, don't turn off God's word from human voices.
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: Examine everything carefully and carry that out. You'll be contagious
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: now having learned these things from God's word, here in
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: this fifth chapter of First Thessalonians join me as we
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: spend the next few moments in prayer. How grateful we are,
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: our Father, for the way your word addresses specific areas
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: of our lives, always in need of attention. Even today,
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: You've talked to us about rejoicing at all times, not
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: necessarily for what has happened, but through it all you
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: have been faithful, and we rejoice in that. We've learned
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: that the surest sign of your presence is joy, So
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: enable us to live that out, Father, and also to
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: pray with the frequency of a hacking cough, frequently often,
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: and without necessarily bowing our heads or closing our eyes.
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: Thank you for that reminder today and the attitude of gratitude.
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: How important is a great full spirit, and that we
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: not quench the spirit, that we not hold back your leading,
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: and at the same time, that we be open to
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: truth as it is presented and not despise your word
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: as it comes to us. Father, Thank you for your
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: lordship over every phase of our lives. Our hearts ache
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: for those who don't know your son, and I close
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: by praying for them now. And Lord, should there be
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: any listening at this moment, who've never trusted in your
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: son as Savior, that you'd bring them to their knees.
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: You'd show them that there is no other one who
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: has the answers for eternal life. Thank you for the
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: privilege of communicating your truth today. May it run now
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: and have free course in the lives of those who
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: have heard it and those who will now be living
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: it out. We ask this together in the great name
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: of Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: The preceding message, Germs that Make Us Contagious was copyrighted
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty four, nineteen eighty five, nineteen ninety three,
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: two thousand three, and twenty twenty four, and the sound
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: recording was copyrighted in twenty twenty four by Charles Rswindall Incorporated.
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: commercial use is strictly prohibited. In the preceding message, Charles
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: Rswindall Incorporated is grateful for permission to use the poem
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: Penitent published in Lord It Keeps Happening and Happening, copyrighted
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty four by Ruth Harms Culkin